With only a few days remaining before the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to adjourn for the winter break, the White House has signaled that it is willing to trade asylum protections and other immigration concessions to secure its foreign aid package. The reaction to this news has unleashed a torrent of criticism from human rights and immigration groups, but this is a moment that requires outcry from the broader public.
Time and again, important policies and decisions are derailed by a small group of Republican legislators who exercise far more control over the future of our country than should be tolerated. In this case, the stakes are so high that the Biden administration appears to be willing to agree to Trump-era policies for managing the border in exchange for aid to Ukraine, Israel, and other sensitive foreign policy objectives.
Reports indicate that immigration laws under negotiation include not just tightening the threshold for asylum eligibility but also expanding the reach of expedited removal—the accelerated deportation process used at the border to quickly remove immigrants without a judicial hearing—to apply everywhere in the U.S. Talks also reportedly include requiring asylum seekers to apply for asylum in countries they travel through to get to the U.S. There is also talk of capping the annual number of asylum grants, which would further limit access to the benefits of asylum but also needlessly create red-tape and delay for those eligible for asylum.
Without discounting the importance of Biden’s foreign aid package, allowing our immigration laws to be re-written in the proverbial smoky back room, based on policies championed by Stephen Miller during the Trump administration, will undo all the Biden administration’s good work on immigration.
And there has been significant good work—beginning with a series of executive orders issued within the first 100 days of Biden’s inauguration that set the stage for reviving the refugee admissions program (projected to reach 125,000 admissions in fiscal year 2024), reuniting thousands of families separated during Trump’s zero-tolerance crisis, streamlining processing for benefits and creating new programs to address gaps and delays in services, restarting the Central American Minors Program, and many other positive initiatives.
Allowing our immigration laws to be re-written in the proverbial smoky back room … will undo all the Biden administration’s good work on immigration.
Some initiatives, like offering protection to stateless people and increasing opportunities to seek protection from persecution within Central and South America, are groundbreaking.
But the border has always been a stumbling block, made more difficult by rising numbers of migrants, from a wider array of countries, and a shifting demographic in which families and children make up the majority of border crossers, many of whom are seeking asylum. The administration has responded to these challenges by expanding parole options for some countries, such as Venezuela, but also by cracking down on asylum-seekers.
Initially, the government relied on Trump’s Title 42 restrictions to keep the border under control, but as the pandemic receded, the failure to lift those restrictions showed a comfort level with blocking access to the border as much as possible.
Today, the government relies on CBP One, its online app for scheduling appearances at the border to limit access, threatening to impose harsh penalties on asylum seekers who fail to use CBP One, including denying them asylum outright, regardless of the merits of their case.
Given this trajectory, it may be unsurprising that agreeing to raise the standard for asylum screenings is on the table, but it demonstrates the lack of vision that plagues both the executive branch and Congress, showing a limited understanding of what is really needed to tackle border security. Countless proposals offering a more realistic and holistic approach to creating a vibrant and safe border exist; they have been repeatedly ignored in favor of the quick, but ultimately unsuccessful, fix known as more deterrence measures.
Ironically, this showdown comes just as the federal district court has approved an extraordinary settlement agreement in the case that exposed the extraordinary cruelty of the Trump administration’s family separation agenda. That was border policy at its worst, and while litigation stopped the practice, it was public outrage that changed the debate and made it unacceptable to use children and families as pawns in the name of deterrence.
We need that same level of outrage here—to cancel deterrence as the only option on the table. It’s not.
Take Action
Some members of Congress are continuing to stand firm on asylum protection. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.) have urged the White House to reject advancing Trump-era immigration policies that he campaigned against “in exchange for aid to our allies that Republicans already support. Caving to demands for these permanent damaging policy changes as a ‘price to be paid’ for an unrelated one-time spending package would set a dangerous precedent.”
Let the president and Congress know you agree.
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